


The Face of the Future, the Blood in my Veins

by Louie_writes



Series: Mental States and other such uncertain things [3]
Category: haikyuu
Genre: Kids slowls dying, but end up putting too much effort into world builing, story of my life, this is what happens when you try to make a scene graspasble and realistic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26299771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louie_writes/pseuds/Louie_writes
Summary: There she was.Kai Sayaka, eight years old, strong and troublesome, had decided to climb the wall surrounding the hospital she had spent the last four months in and would probably also spend an indefinite amount of future time in.Upright and spiteful she stood in the slight wind that made her bright orange dress flow imposingly, burning in contrast to the vast blue sky above her like a sunset would.Her older brother Noboyuki, calmer now that he knew where she had run off to, climbed the wall after her.“So this is where you went to ‘seek out adventure’.” He said in the calmest voice he could muster, as not to startle her.She looked him straight in the eye with a soul-chilling intensity.“I’m going to die.” She said with absolute certainty.
Series: Mental States and other such uncertain things [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910899
Kudos: 3
Collections: Creative Chaos Discord Recs





	The Face of the Future, the Blood in my Veins

**Author's Note:**

> Idk smth imagien dragons itll come back to me at some point

There she was.

Kai Sayaka, eight years old, strong and troublesome, had decided to climb the wall surrounding the hospital she had spent the last four months in and would probably also spend an indefinite amount of future time in.

Upright and spiteful she stood in the slight wind that made her bright orange dress flow imposingly, burning in contrast to the vast blue sky above her like a sunset would.

Her older brother Noboyuki, calmer now that he knew where she had run off to, climbed the wall after her.

“So this is where you went to ‘seek out adventure’.” He said in the calmest voice he could muster, as not to startle her.

She looked him straight in the eye with a soul-chilling intensity.

“I’m going to die.” She said with absolute certainty.

Words and tears died in Noboyuki’s throat as he desperately tried to stray her ideas, but failed to find good arguments as to why she could be wrong.

God he wanted her to be wrong.

Craved to have her life and be difficult and restless and not have adults tell her how little of a chance she had to see the end of the year.

“Death should be something cool like jumping off an airplane into a volcano or sacrificing your life to save a city full of people from an evil super villain. Not something lame and uncool like a dumb blood disease that make your body shut down from the inside.”

Noboyuki desperately craved to say something to her. Something that would cheer her up, make her believe again, make her live and make her stay.

But he had no such words.

He wouldn’t be able to believe his own lies.

Sayaka made a face then that only adorable, eight-year-old girls can do that have been wronged and are incredibly upset about it. It somewhat made her look like an angry cat.

“I wanna see so much of this world damnit. Some blood disease won’t stop me, this world is cool!”

Something about that… Something about that statement shook something in Noboyuki.

Probably the fact that their parents had been quite adamant about their word choice and cursing was strictly out of the picture. So seeing this rebellious little girl curse so freely showed a form of lively spirit Noboyuki desperately craved to see.

“I believe in you,” he said, grinning, and meaning it.

Kids with spirits as fiery as this were immortal.

He believed that strongly.

——

Sayaka’s funeral was a draining event.

Her sisters bawled their eyes out, mourning Sayaka and the empty hole she left in the world.

Ayume held a picture Sayaka had drawn for her, a crayon picture of their whole family. The triplets all in each other’s arms and smiling widely, and their older brother Noboyuki standing behind them, watching over them.

The picture had gotten wrinkled from the way Kotone clutched it in her hands, and the top of it was soaked in her tears.

Tomo desperately tried to sing that song they had always sung together, but with her tears and hiccups it was hard for her to get the notes out.

Noboyuki did not feel anything at all, let alone express it.

Losing his sisters had been his greatest fear, and he had not allowed himself to actively think about the consequences and potential. And now, that one of them was gone, he dreaded to think about what it meant.

The reality of it and the consequences for him and his sisters and the doctors’ diagnoses.

He dared not to think about it.

Dared not to risk it.

He chose to feel nothing.

* * *

Kotone sitting on her bed, framing the picture she had gotten from her sister with ice cream sticks that you got for surprisingly little money at the craft store, and too much glue.

Tomo practicing a little tune.

Their doctor came in, and for a hot moment Noboyuki was confused as to why, since there had been no major issues after the… event, and it wasn’t regular check up time.

The doctor looked around the room.  
  
“Miss Tomo I have a proposition for you.”  
  
Most people had trouble keeping the sisters apart. They were identical and never put much effort into distinguishing themselves, even if they certainly each had their own style and fashion. Their doctor, however, had spent so much time with them that he could keep them apart at a glance.  
  
So he correctly figured that the girl with the flute was Tomo, the musically inclined sister.

“Would you like to hold a concert for the other kids in the hospital any time soon?” The doctor asked.  
  
Tomo went deep red in her entire face and looked briefly like she wasn't breathing, before she started to shake slightly and said, “sure” in an unsteady voice.

The doctor nodded.  
  
“It is an idea we just had. It happens every now and again that longer staying guests perform something for the other patients, and I figured you may like to play us a tune. I can surely also find other acts in different rooms that would like to provide to the event.”  
  
Tomo nodded stiffly and the doctor bowed at them all quickly before heading out again.  
  
Tomo squaled highly in the back of her throat before being tackled onto her bed by a screaming Kotone.  
  
“Oh you’re gonna be so good, so good! You’re gonna hold a concert and everyone is going to love you! Oh I should sing with you.”  
  
“No!” Tomo and Noboyuki exclaimed at the same moment. While Sayaka had often sang along with Tomo’s music, Kotone’s singing voice was much more poisonous to the ears.  
  
“Alright gee, I get it, you don’t love me.” She said teasingly and in good jest.  
  
“But this is so good,” she said, turning ot her sister again, “you’re gonna give a concert and it’s gonna be so good and I’ll cheer for you so loudly that everyone will cheer along no matter what and if they’re mean I’ll beat them up, so don’t be nervous.”  
  
“I can’t promise that,” Tomo said, “my stomach feels like it is about to flip over.”  
  
“Do you have any idea what you want to play yet?” Noboyuki asked.  
  
Tomo looked at him clearly, a soft smile on her face.  
  
“I have a little something in mind.”  
  
\-----  
  
“I told you not to be nervous!” Kotone said, minutes before the event, in, what was in her mind, probably a form of encouragement.  
  
“Easier said than done.” Tomo said, clutching her flure desperately and shaking with her entire body.  
  
Noboyuki laid a hand on her back, shocking her out of her anxiety, and making her look at him with big eyes.  
  
“We will be with you all the way, you can do this.”  
  
There wasn’t much Noboyuki could do, especially compared to his sisters that were strutting with talent, but he knew that he had a calming aura that his sisters sought out when insecure, and he knew when to use it.  
  
Tomo nodded at him, more strength in her eyes and a slight smile on her face.  
  
“Our next act will be Kai Tomo, who prepared a little song for us, that she has composed herself.”  
  
Immediately Tomo got back all her fear and looked at her siblings desperately.  
  
Kotone clapped her on the back unhelpfully.  
  
“We will be in the crowd cheering you on loudly, see you soon.”  
  
Noboyuki waved at his betrayed and disturbed looking sister as well, and followed Kotone into the general crowd.  
  
Tomo stood on the little make-do stage, her flute in her hand and looking nervous as all hell.  
  
There were general cheers from all the little kids in the crowd. Cancer patients and general disabilities and faces and stories Noboyuki knew from seeing them around a lot. Some even called Tomo’s name onto the stage.  
  
A few voices called for Sayaka or Kotone, apparently mixing them up.  
  
Noboyuki stood next to an elderly man he had never seen before, probably the grandfather of one of the kids here. He had his arms crossed and didn’t clap like some of the crowd, but he had a soft and open smile.  
  
Konote woo-ed loudly next to Noboyuki, and he was almost inclined to do the same.  
  
Tomo looked over to where her siblings were, cheering their sister on and showing thumbs up in support.  
  
A soft but strong willed smile showed on her face, and Noboyuki knew that she could do it.  
  
She put the flute to her mouth, and breathed out deeply before she started.  
  
It was a surprisingly happy tune, considering the circumstances. It sounded a lot like people dancing, and a few of the fitter kids even got up to dance. A little boy with breathing support waved her arms a little to join in the actions, but presumably in a way that wasn’t too straining.  
  
The tune got so hype that even Tomo herself danced on stage, and Kotone next to Noboyuki danced as well, even (badly) singing along to the tune, since the two of them had been there when Tomo had practiced the piece in theri hospital room.  
  
“This girl has a bright future,” the elderly man next to Noboyuki noted, bouncing a little to the tune, and tapping his finger along with the tact.  
  
Tomo finished the song in a complicated but fun sequence, and bowed before the cheering crowd.  
  
“This tune is dedicated to my sister Sayaka, who passed recently.” She said to the general wooing crowd, who barely heard it, “she was very lively and a sun shine to boot. We miss her every day but I can carry on knowing she is watching me and cheering me on from somewhere.”  
  
Kotone was shell shocked next to Noboyuki, unable to process the information.  
  
Noboyuki was unwilling to. Cold sweat rolling down his back, in frequent exchange with hot waves.  
  
He swallowed down the tears that quelled up in his throat, and chose to not feel anything instead.  
  
Tomo ran off stage and into her startled sisters arms. With tears in her eyes she said,  
  
“That was AMAZING! I think I peed myself up there but it was also so good! I wanna do it again and again and again and--”  
  
\-----  
  
Tomo’s funeral was even more dreadful.  
  
Kotone and Noboyuki both stood by the grave that now held both the urn for Sayaka and the one for Tomo.  
  
Neither said anything, neither cried.  
  
It was so solemn.  
  
Noboyuki chose to not feel dread over that.  
  
“I’m not going to lose to a criglar.” Kotone eventually said, quietly, but with determination.  
  
Noboyuki looked at her in surprise.  
  
“I owe it to them. They never got to get old and do dumb things as teenagers and dread their office jobs as adults. I wanna grow up and become old and live the life they never could. I owe it to them because they never got the chance.”  
  
There was no fire in Kotone’s eyes, no rebellion.  
  
Something icy and cold, something seasoned and calculating.  
  
Something grounded.  
  
There was a capable adult in this eight year old girl.  
  
\------  
  
Six months had passed and Noboyuki dared to hope again. Kotone’s stats had stabilised. Not better, but also not worse.  
  
She made a point of getting out of bed every day to do some exercise. She sneaked out of her room to pay visits to other patients or sometimes just to sneak out of the hospital to see the world.  
  
Cold and determined were her eyes, and Sayaka’s picture frame and Tomo’s flute lay on her bedside table.  
  
If she had anything akin to a proper sleeping pattern Noboyuki couldn’t have been more content.

\----  
  
Two weeks later she worsened.  
  
She slept less, she lost weight, her skin got yellow and she required more treatment.  
  
Noboyuki had seen it before.  
  
Twice before,  
  
So had Kotone.  
  
“Not like this,” Kotone’s broken voice said, desperately clinging on, “I shouldn’t end like them, not after everything that happened, not after we did so well.”  
  
Noboyuki sat next to her bed, as he had done with his other sisters. Clutching her weakening hand tightly in his own and burring his face in the grasp.  
  
He dared not to cry.  
  
Don’t let it go.  
  
Don’t let the damn break.  
  
Don’t let her see.  
  
\-------  
  
A third urn, a flute, a picture in a frame, and an unsettling, very used pair of boxing gloves next to some incense.  
  
Noboyuki dared not look at it directly, dreading that the reality of it all would set in.  
  
An empty blue sky stretched out over a graveyard that richer people buried their family ones in.

Noboyuki stared at the vastness of it, but dared not soak in what has happened, and what he ought to face in the future.  
  
If he bothered to tread in it.  
  
He swallowed everything that was brewing in him way deep down in his persona, tied it up in emotional duct tape, and set on a mellow smile, that would not lead people to ask him personal questions about his well being.  
  
He soldiered on, because that was the only thing he ever learned how to do.


End file.
